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Monday, June 29, 2015

Countering political violence: Tackle the root causes

RSIS
Commentary is a platform to provide timely and, where appropriate, policy-relevant
commentary and analysis of topical issues and contemporary developments. The
views of the authors are their own and do not represent the official position
of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU. These commentaries
may be reproduced electronically or in print with prior permission from RSIS
and due recognition to the author(s) and RSIS. Please email: RSISPublications@ntu.edu.sgfor feedback to the
Editor RSIS Commentary, Yang Razali Kassim.

No. 145/2015 dated 29 June 2015

Countering political violence:Tackle the root causes

By James M. Dorsey

Synopsis

Nations across Europe, North Africa and Middle East have responded to recent
attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait with lofty condemnations of violent
extremism and kneejerk security measures that in isolation are unlikely to
solve what is becoming a festering problem. To drain the swamps of
radicalization, governments will have to embed security measures in policies
that give disaffected youth a stake in society.Commentary

EUROPEAN OFFICIALS, describing recruitment efforts by the Islamic State in
Bosnia Herzegovina, mired in a toxic mix of economic malaise and ethnic
tension, reportedly fear they may regret having failed to tackle the country’s
structural problems in the two decades since the end of the Yugoslav wars.

The regret could apply to any number of failures to tackle root problems that
have prompted lone wolves to strike fear in major European cities, at tourist
attractions in North Africa, and in Shiite mosques in the Gulf. They also
persuaded thousands of Europeans, Arabs and others to join the Islamic State as
foreign fighters; and tens of thousands to seek refuge in Europe from civil
war, brutal repression, and economic despair.

Band-aid solutions, knee
jerk responses

Across the board, democracies and autocracies alike are experiencing the
blowback of decades of Band-Aid solutions, policies that failed to give youth
prospects for a future with a stake in society, and repression largely
unchallenged by Western governments that pay lip service to adherence to
political pluralism, inclusiveness, and human and minority rights in various
parts of the world, particularly the Middle East and North Africa.

In the latest examples of kneejerk responses, Tunisia is deploying 1,000 armed
policemen to tourist sites even as tourists leave the country en masse, and
closing 80 mosques suspected of hosting radical clerics that is likely to push
militants further underground. Kuwait, which displayed a remarkable degree of
inclusivity with Sunnis and Shias joining hands in their condemnation of the
bombing of a Shiite mosque that left 27 people dead and more than 200 others
wounded, is mulling adoption of a stringent anti-terrorism law while France is
passing legislation that would authorise sweeping surveillance.

None of these measure address the sense of hopelessness that pervades predominantly
Muslim minorities in Europe and is reinforced by increased prejudice sparked by
violence and brutality perpetrated by Muslim extremists. That hopelessness is
matched by despair and existential fears among youth, minorities, and alienated
sects in the Middle East and North Africa.

In an article in the London Review of Books, Patrick Cockburn quoted a 29-year
old Syrian who fights for the Islamic State as saying: “We are fighting because
both the regime and the opposition failed us, so we need an armed organisation
to fight for our rights.” His words could just as well have been spoken by a
European or a fighter from anywhere else in the Arab world.

A display of cynicism
Rather than reducing political violence, more than a decade of war on terrorism
has produced ever more virulent forms of extremism and flows of refugees. The
WOT had framed efforts to counter radicalization and persuaded Western
governments to revert to support of Middle Eastern and North African autocrats
in the name of ensuring stability.

In a display of cynicism, Western governments have exploited their support of
autocracy to secure lucrative arms deals while failing to ensure levels of aid
that would credibly address social and economic malaise in a country like
Tunisia that is struggling with the transition from autocracy to democracy.

The result of exclusively security-focussed approaches coupled with the
exploitation of economic opportunity, is an increasingly insecure world in
which Western and regional powers have proven incapable of defeating non-state
actors like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), multiple militant
militias in Libya, Islamist insurgents in Egypt’s Sinai, and rebel Houthis in
Yemen.

Said an Egyptian militant whose non-violent anti-government activism is as much
aimed at opposing the regime of general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi
as it is designed to persuade increasingly frustrated youth that there are
alternatives to nihilistic violence: “The strategy of brutality, repression and
restricting freedom has failed to impose subservience. It hasn’t produced
solutions. Governments need to give people space. They need to prove that they
are capable of addressing the problems of a youth that has lost hope. We have
nothing to lose if they don’t”.

Shouldering responsibility

Meanwhile, European nations are struggling to cope with an onslaught of
refugees forced in part to flee their homelands by the policies of the very
autocracies the West supports. At the same time, those autocracies refused to absorb
some of those fleeing conflicts in for example Syria, Yemen and Iraq that they
have helped fuel.

Obviously, Western governments have a responsibility to put their own homes in
order by matching lofty words of inclusiveness with actions that address high
youth unemployment in migrant communities, lack of equal opportunity, and
ensure that minorities are embraced as full-fledged members of society rather
than perceived as a fifth column.

At the same time, Western governments would have to take a lead in pushing
Middle Eastern and North African autocrats to change or drop policies that fuel
radicalization and take measures that would address widespread grievances. Such
measures would include:

• A halt to the global propagation of intolerant ideologies by some Middle
Eastern governments and state-sponsored groups such as Saudi Arabia’s
interpretation of Wahhabism that contrasts starkly with that of Qatar, the
world’s only other Wahhabi state;

• Abolition of sectarianism in state rhetoric;

• Recognition of minority rights;

• Reform of brutal police and security forces that are widely feared and
despised;

• Granting of greater freedoms to ensure the existence of release valves for
pent-up anger and frustration and the unfettered voicing of grievances;

• A crackdown on corruption;

• Reform of education systems that produce a mismatch between market demand and
graduates’ skills.

To be sure, there is no magic wand that will overnight turn the tide or
definitively eradicate extremism. But there are a host of steps that
governments could take that go beyond desperately needed social and economic
policies that would create jobs and give youth a prospect for the future. Such
measures would start addressing root causes of extremism in a bid to persuade
those segments of society susceptible to radicalisation
that they have a stake in working within the system.

James M. Dorsey is a Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of
International Studies (RSIS) as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore,
and co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg,
Germany.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile